1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor light emitting device, and more particularly, to a semiconductor light emitting device having an array of light emitting cells, a light emitting module including the semiconductor light emitting device, and an illumination apparatus including the light emitting module.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, semiconductor light emitting diodes (LEDs) are advantageous for light sources in terms of power, efficiency and reliability. Therefore, semiconductor LEDs are being actively developed as high-power, high-efficiency light sources for various illumination apparatuses as well as for backlight units of display devices.
For the commercialization of such semiconductor LEDs as illumination light sources, it is necessary to increase their light efficiency and reduce their production cost while increasing their power to a desired level.
However, a high-power LED using a high-rated current may have low light efficiency due to a high current density, when compared to a low-power LED using a low-rated current.
Specifically, if a rated current is increased to obtain high luminous flux in an LED chip of the same area in order to obtain high power, the light efficiency may be degraded due to an increase in the current density. Also, the light efficiency degradation is accelerated due to heat generated by the device.